Michele Mandel, Toronto Sun

It was 1978 and she was a vulnerable, 15-year-old foster child placed by the Catholic Children’s Aid in the Scarborough home of a TTC supervisor and his family.

Like a fawn placed in a lion’s den.

After being moved to 28 different foster homes in two years, the fragile teen thought she was safe at last. But when Howard Smith became housebound after being injured in a car accident, her nightmare began.

Smith, 26 at the time and a father of two, sexually assaulted her on three or four occasions while they were home alone, she says. Her virginity stolen, her shame so profound that she would scrub her skin raw with bleach, she begged her CCAS worker to get her away from him. Instead, she says she was called a liar and left her there until her pregnancy finally proved she’d been telling the truth all along.